This is Hard to Write...

This is hard to write and hard to talk about, but that is part of what this blog is about - to journal our thoughts, our victories, and sadly, our struggles in managing a small, diversified homestead farm. Tricia and I have long said that this adventure is a learning process, one that has its fair shares of exuberance and victories where you feel like you are on top of the world AND one fraught with disappointments and difficulties where you feel like you're in a valley.  This is one of those times.

On April 6, 2013, we embarked upon a new adventure that we chronicled in this post: Nellie in which we rejoiced in a new addition to our family when we purchased a lovable Nubian Dairy goat named Nellie.  Since that time Nellie has become like a member of our family, yielding gallons and gallons of goat milk that we use primarily to make kefir.  She gave us many smiles and laughs along the way. She also gave us Annie, her little girl:

Annie

Annie's all grown now and it was time to bring Nellie and Annie to be bred by a Nubian billy goat and we recently discussed that trip in This Blog Post.

Nellie (foreground) and Annie (background) ready to go

We received a call earlier this week sadly informing us that Nellie had died.  There. I said it.  We don't know how or why and we certainly don't blame the wonderful people looking after her.  There were no marks from predators and no signs of sickness.  It just happened.  It's one of those things that you turn over and over in your mind wondering what we could have done differently, wondering how this could have been averted or what type of learning experience we can take away from this tragedy. Sometimes there are no answers.

We know that we provided her with a good life.  She was a happy goat and it saddens us that when we go to pick up Annie, Nellie won't be returning to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  As I write this I can almost hear her bleating "behhhh" and the jingling of the red bell that we had hanging around her neck as she would run to the barn for her daily milking.

There is a phrase in French, C'est la vie, that means "That's life."  It's true.  Bad things just happen sometimes that we can't change.  Although hard to accept, it's just the way things are and you keep pressing on.  Life is a cycle that sadly includes death.  We fully understand that she's an animal. She's not human and as special as she was to our family, her life is not as valuable as human life.  Our job is to be good stewards of the animals and land that the Good Lord has given us and we believe we've done that, but that is no consolation for losing her and doesn't assuage the sense of loss we have. This isn't the first animal we've lost and it won't be the last.

RIP Nellie

The Millenials have a term they use when something is really good.  They call it GOAT.  That acronym stands for Greatest Of All Time.  RIP Nellie.  You were the GOAT and we will miss you! 

Goat-proof Fence?

A few weekends ago our goats broke down the welded wire fence that separated our garden from the pasture.  They feasted along with the calf in our garden.  I don't really blame them. I'd do the same if I was them. Vegetables taste better than grass, I'm sure.  The lesson I learned from that is that you have to have the proper fencing for goats.  I did not have that.  I was using a very light 48 inch tall welded wire fence. Nellie had stood up on the fence and just her weight broke the welds.  I patched it, but her persistence eventually enabled her to break it down.

After doing some research I found the proper fencing at Tractor Supply Company and purchased a roll of heavy gauge 48" 4x4 wire fencing that is specifically made for Sheep and Goats.  The 4x4 holes are too small for them to get their heads through and the heavier gauge fence will not break under the goat's weight. So we picked up a 330 foot roll and over the last two Saturdays we were able to break down the old fence, erect the new one in its place and get the first sunburn of the season.  It was hot!

Impenetrable, I hope

Here is the old welded wire fence that we pulled down.  I am planning to cut out the sections that Nellie ruined and throw it away.  Then I'll use the remainder of the good fence to add to the top of the existing fence that separates the pasture from the neighbor's yard.  The goats have been standing up on the fence and craning their necks over and eating the neighbor's plants.  That has got to stop.  Extending the height to six feet should dampen their resolve.  We'll see.

Welded wire that I intend on salvaging

Here is a close up of the welded wire fence and you can see quickly how Nellie the goat was able to break this fence down.

Not Nellie-proof

We finished the fencing this afternoon and put a strand of barbed wire on the very top to discourage rubber-necking.

The new fence is up

I'm thinking that this fence is going to do the job, but we'll watch the animals very closely as they examine the new fence and try to breach it.  Hopefully, this will fence will do the job and we can spend our weekends doing more enjoyable things from here on out.

The Trouble With Goats

Today we had a minor disaster at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  It could have been a lot worse, and I'm going to have to focus on that, but the events that unfolded left a scar on the garden and will take some time and hard work to overcome.  But we'll keep pressing forward.

I'll start out with the moral of the story:  2 x 4 welded wire fence is not effective fencing to keep goats out of the garden. I should've known better.  It's easy to blame some dumb animals, but I'm the one with whom the blame lies.

We have fencing that separates the garden from the pasture.  I noticed several weeks ago that Nellie, the goat, has been standing up on the welded wire fencing with her front hooves and this has broken the fence in places and she's been able to get her head through the broken pieces and feast on the succulent vegetables growing in the garden.  With limited time before the sun goes down, I've wired some unsightly tin against the holes to keep her at bay.  While it looks trashy, it's been effective - until today.

An attempt at patching the holes

Here's a closer look.  Like the story of the little Dutch boy putting his finger in the hole in the dike, I thought I had "plugged the hole."

Plugging the hole

Nellie is persistent, though, and didn't let that stop her.  She looked around for another point of entry and another weakness.  She found it.  This morning I woke up early, milked the cows and goat with Tricia and went to help a friend butcher 130 chickens.  At about 3 pm, I drove back home, weary, bloody, stinky and tired.  I was looking forward to a nice shower.  I immediately noticed something was awry as two goats (Nellie and her daughter, Annie) and a 350 pound heifer (Amy) were feasting in the garden.  ARGGGHHH!

I'll admit my first inclination was to go inside and grab my shotgun and put 3 animals in the freezer, but I let my anger subside, cooler heads prevailed and I got the perpetrators out.  Besides, I was tired of butchering animals after gutting 130 Cornish Cross meat birds.  I just wasn't game for field dressing 3 bigger animals.  In hindsight, it was probably a funny sight to see me running around, catching the animals and evicting them from the garden.  It was not funny then - not in the least. Once I got them out, I saw what happened.  Nellie had climbed up the fence and her weight popped the top staples out.  She was able to then bend the fence over and she and Annie and then Amy jumped over at ate to their heart's content.

The point of entry (I've pulled it back up and restapled it.

So now that you've seen the theives' entry point, I'll give you a virtual tour of the damage and then we'll look at the perpetrators that I apprehended.  Here are all the sordid details:

Here is some trampled garlic:

This isn't too bad and most will be salvageable

They really seemed to be attracted to the colorful and sweet leaves of the Swiss Chard and Bull's Blood Beets:

Yum!

They really ground the fresh Roma Italian beans into the ground, breaking stalks and ruining them.  Some will pick back up, hopefully.  These Roma beans are flat, instead of being round like Contender Green Beans.  In addition to the pods being flat, the whole plants now are literally flat.  

Flat Beans

The peanuts were a real favorite and crowd pleaser.  They were clipped down to the ground.

@#$^&!!!

The Purple Beauty Bell Pepper plants are completely de-nuded.  

This is gonna leave a scar

I discovered that the goats and heifer prefer the tasty leaves instead of the colorful stalks of the Swiss Chard.

Colorful Stalks (almost made me use colorful words)

This Purple Hull Pea ain't comin' back.

Uprooted and wilted

The tomato plants were sampled.  They really liked the Arkansas Traveler variety of heirloom tomatoes. You can see a hen in the background checking out the damage.

Diced Tomatoes

The pole beans were also a favorite entree today.

What a mess!

I don't think they left a single leaf on the vines of the Rattlesnake Pole Beans.

Leave Me Alone

The perpetrators were promptly apprehended and taken to Central Lockup to be printed and processed. Here are the mugshots:

This is a very guilty looking Amy, being held without bond in a holding facility, awaiting trial and sentencing for breaking and entering and destruction of private property.  I think she feels badly about what she's done.

Amy's mugshot

But here is the ringleader of the bunch, Nellie.  Nellie is being held in maximum security.  No bail.  As you can see from her mugshot, she is unrepentant.  She is being held for Breaking and Entering, Conspiracy, Destruction of property and contributing to the Delinquency of a Juvenile.  That juvenile is her daughter, Annie. Annie will serve out her sentence in Juvenile Hall.  Believe me, both should feel fortunate that capital punishment is off the table and they weren't sentenced to the Barbecue Pit (Cabrito, anyone?)

Partners in Crime

I laugh to keep from crying.  Really, it could be worse.  I think about the early settlers, who had predators kill their livestock, crops ruined by buffalo, hail, fire, rain or drought.  If my crops are ruined or yields diminished, I can drive to the store and purchase food.  This is a minor set-back.  With the early settlers of our great land, this would have truly been disastrous and could've meant life or death.

I'll move on from this.  I'll learn my lesson, bulk up the fence, roll up my sleeves and get to work.  In South Louisiana, we have a phrase for this, "C'est La Vie," translated in English, "That's Life."  The sun will rise tomorrow and we'll live to fight another day.  In times like this, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.  Peace!

The Privacy Fence

Several Sunday's ago our preacher talked about a new neighborhood going up near his home.  He stated that the first thing everyone does (sadly) is erect large privacy fences in order to block off the neighbors and that the message it sends out is, "You mind your business and I'll mind mine."  His point being that we tend to wall ourselves off and don't reach out to our neighbors and can become isolated and self-absorbed instead of being out-going and neighborly.

I understand exactly what he's saying.  We need to make sure we're interacting and involved in the culture. We need to be others focused and engaged with our neighbors.  If we sequester ourselves away and are just concerned with "our four and no more," we aren't fulfilling the Great Commission.

James 1:27

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

We do like a certain amount of privacy, though, since I've been known to walk out to the garden in my robe or boxers to get cilantro or green onions for a breakfast omelet. So several years ago we erected a "living privacy fence" on the East side of our property by planting some yellow irises that grow to about 5 feet tall. In addition to having lush green foliage (that is prettier than an old brown fence), in the Springtime these irises bloom.  The blooms are spectacular and brighten the landscape.  And the irises don't block the ability for us to talk across the fence to one another or go around it for us to bring them eggs or them to bring us banana nut bread or homemade shortbread!

Top view of Yellow Iris

Here is a side view of the same yellow iris.  Ain't that pretty?

Side view of Yellow Iris

You can see that there are numerous, additional blooms that are about to burst open and beautify the area between my neighbor and I.  We'll be able to both enjoy the pretty irises and at the same time have a modicum of privacy due to the living fence.

Soon to bloom

This living privacy fence would be marvelous - except for one problem.  That would be Nellie, our Nubian goat.  As the photo below indicates, Nellie is being, well, a goat. Goats are browsers.  They like eating leaves from bushes, shrubs, trees, and privacy fences.  You can see how she's craned her neck through the hogwire and given the privacy fence a nice haircut.  You can also see at the two o'clock position in the photo that she's climbed up on top of the woodpile (that I've already re-stacked at least 3 times) and knocked it all down - again!

Goats can be a challenge.  Everything that works for cows, doesn't work for goats. We always laugh and say it's like having a toddler around.  You have to plan and put things out of reach or else you have chaos and destruction.  It is hard to stay mad at the goats though.  They are odd and curious creatures that you can't help but like.  

The iris that grows out of reach of the long-necked goat is healthy, tall, and beautiful. The iris that grows close to the fence looks like a "high & tight" clipper cut of a soldier in the military.

Business up front and Party in the back...

So, I've got "Plan B" ready to go.  I'm going to go up another 3 feet on the 2 X 4 welded wire perimeter fence on the East side, effectively stopping Nellie's iris eating. That little project will have to wait until I get the rest of the garden in though.  I've got yellow squash, zucchini squash, several types of cucumbers, loofah gourd, birdhouse gourd, and okra seedlings that I need to transplant and I also need to plant my sweet corn and sunflowers.  Those are higher on my priority list since all of those are EDIBLE, while the irises are not (to me at least - Nellie would beg to differ!)

GOAT Knees

A popular saying with some young people these days is when something or someone is really good, they call it/them GOAT.  I had no idea what that meant until it someone explained to me that GOAT is the acronym for Greatest Of All Time.  So if anyone ever calls you GOAT, it is a good thing - be flattered, they are describing you as the greatest of all time!  If they call you an old goat, well, that's NOT a compliment.

We do have actual goats on the farm, though, two of them, both Nubian goats. Nubians have a heritage from the Middle East and Northern Africa, so they can withstand the hot climates of South Louisiana.  Nellie is our mama goat that we're currently milking and Annie is her little girl.  We'll probably get them bred again next month.  Goats are such interesting, quirky creatures with funny personalities.  Here's old Nellie, sitting by the gate.

Nellie the Nubian Goat

Nellie has quite a profile.  She has long ears and a long white beard.  You can see it hanging below her jaw. If you look closely in the photograph she has two three inch long waddles that hang from her neck.  No one knows what purpose they serve.  She is curious and has lately taken to jumping on top of the chicken coop, standing up on her hind legs and pulling down limbs of an oak tree to eat the new Spring leaf growth. The cows all use that opportunity to rush over and eat on the leaves while Nellie's holding the limb down.  The cows try to head-butt Nellie every chance they get.  They don't like her and I think the feeling is mutual.

Quite a profile

Nellie is very tame and is easily milked, providing us with goat milk with which we make kefir.  Goat kefir mixed with local honey and pureed fresh frozen fruit (figs, blueberries, peaches) is my breakfast on most mornings.

One other characteristic of Nellie is her knees.  Just look at them!  Not very pretty to look at.  They're rough, hardened and no hair grows on them due to Nellie staying on her knees a lot.  She'll kneel down on those knobby knees, push her head through the fence and eat weeds and grass growing on the other side. Over time, the friction of this process repeated time and again, has given her calloused, goat knees.

Calloused Goat Knees

When I observed this, I couldn't help but think about prayer.  Have you ever known someone who was a prayer warrior? People with great faith spend a lot of time on their knees in prayer, praising God for His Faithfulness, thanking Him for the blessings He bestows, interceding on behalf of others who are afflicted with illness or heartache, and pleading with God to answer their prayers.  Nellie is a goat and as far as I know, goats don't pray, but Nellie convicted me.  My knees aren't anything to look at, but they certainly aren't calloused like Nellie's.

Of course you don't have to kneel to pray.  You can pray in any position you wish. Looking at Nellie's Goat knees was a convicting reminder to me that my prayer life could use some improvement.

"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer." - John Wesley

GOAT knees

Wouldn't it be nice to be known as GOAT Prayer Warrior?  I need to be on my knees more, literally and figuratively.  Thanks for illustrating that perfectly, Nellie.

King of the Hill

Queen of the Bale, to be more precise...

Sunday afternoon when I was harvesting carrots, I looked over the fence and there sat Nellie in all her glory. The pinkish hue that you see directly over her head is a peach tree that is absolutely covered in blooms. We had a freeze last night and today, so I hope it didn't ruin the peach crop.  Back to Nellie - she had one leg stretched out and was accompanied by an Aracauna hen.  She looked very comfortable and relaxed.  Now the cows don't particularly like her to be sitting up there as Nellie will poop little 'milk dud' looking things all over the hay.  If I was a cow, I wouldn't be appreciative of that either.  The cows and Nellie barely tolerate one another and the cows will rush after her and try to head butt her.  She scurries off and the bell around her neck rings defiantly as she gets away and jumps up on the woodpile to taunt them.

Nellie Chillin' Out on the round bale

As I got closer, she wasn't moving at all.  Her eyes were closed.  She was sleeping. This is what I should have been doing on a Sunday afternoon!

Nellie was "sawing logs"

While we're talking about goats, I wanted to update you on the progress of dehorning Annie.  Annie is Nellie's little kid that looks just like her.  In a previous post, we showed you how we were dehorning her with a Band Castrator.  This device is normally used to turn a bull into a steer.  (Ouch!)  Instead, we applied the band at the base of Annie's horns and in a few weeks, they were supposed to fall off.

Well, we've attained partial success!  One of Annie's horns has fallen off as the photo below shows.  Annie now looks like the legendary Unicorn, well, if it was centered in her head.  I've read up on it and I think I'll place another band on her remaining horn this evening as I learned that the original band tends to lose its elasticity from time to time.  I'm pleased with the one that fell off.  It is clean and almost bloodless and doesn't seem to cause the pain that dehorning an animal with dehorning paste or hot iron dehorning sometimes does. 

Amy, our little unicorn

I searched around in her stall and found the horn that fell off.  You can see the thick, green rubber band that constricted around the horn and made it fall off.  If it is that effective on something as hard as a horn, you can see how efficient it would be on a young bull's... ahem... 'manhood.'

One of Annie's horns

Biblestudytools.com says that:

The word "horn" is often used metaphorically to signify strength and honor, because horns are the chief weapons and ornaments of the animals which possess them; hence they are also used as a type of victory.

We didn't mean to cut off Annie's strength or honor.  We're simply trying to protect our eyes, our fences, and our goats as they are notorious for getting their horns stuck in fences, trees, etc.  As I was typing this, I remembered an instance in history to underscore the point that goats' horns get them into trouble sometimes. You'll remember it as well.  The Book of Genesis tells us that Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar when the LORD stopped him and had him look around.

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.  Genesis 22:13

That's of great significance to us.  Just as the ram stood as an offering in place of Abraham's only son, Isaac, God's only son, Jesus did the same for you and me!  The Bible goes on to say that Abraham named that spot, Jehovah Jireh, or The LORD provides.  And he does.  He provides for you and me, both our immediate needs and our eternal ones, if we place our trust in Him.

Update on Annie's Horns

A few weeks ago we posted about our experiment using a band castrator to dehorn Annie.  Annie is Nellie's little girl and she's got some 3 1/2 inch horns that are pointed and dangerous.  Dangerous to your eyes as she is always curiously darting back and forth and could easily gore you in the eye if you're not paying attention and then dangerous to her as I've had to rescue her from being caught in the fence.  She could have hanged herself if I wasn't around.

So as we showed in this post that you can read about if you haven't read it already, we used a band castrator to apply thick rubber bands around Annie's horns to remove the horns slowly.  This morning I noticed something looked different about one of Annie's horns.

One horn is leaning over

I got close to Annie and Lili as they were munching on some Bermuda grass hay to inspect Annie.

Annie's left horn is about to fall off

Her horn has been almost cut in half and is leaning over.  Although it is about to fall off, I read that you are NOT to pull on it or attempt to break it off as this would cause bleeding.  You've got to be patient.

Finally a close-up of the horn.  No blood.  The band has constricted the horn and has almost cut it off completely.  In a few days it should fall off.

One horn almost cut off - no blood, no mess, no pain

After I took this picture I checked on her right horn and the band was well inside of the horn.  I estimate it will start leaning over and will fall off in another week or two. Annie will look a lot different and it will be hard to tell her and her mom, Nellie apart once she's 'horn-less.'

My Right Hand Man

In the Book of Genesis, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel was named 'Ben-oni' which means 'son of my sorrow'.  He was named this unfortunate name by his mother after a hard labor in which she ended up dying in childbirth.  Jacob renamed him 'Benjamin,' which means 'son of my right hand.'  Well, Benjamin is our youngest son and he lived up to his namesake this weekend as he was truly my right-hand man!

In an earlier post I was talking about how Benjamin was going to have to 'step it up' since Russ went off to college.  Russ really helped me out around the farm.  While Benjamin's normal chores include feeding the dogs and cats and making sure that the cows, goats, chickens, turkeys, dogs and cats have water, he was now going to have to gather eggs each day.  We also talked about how I was going to need him to help out in other areas as well.  Other Areas is a broad frontier, I know!

Well, this past weekend Tricia drove to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit her Mom and I really needed Benjamin to step up to the plate and handle the goat-milking duties that Tricia normally handles.  Nellie's milk production is falling off somewhat as it's been about 6 months since Annie was born, but Nellie's still giving a little less than a quart each time we milk her.  Nellie requires milking twice a day since we have her 'goat bra' on to try to wean Annie.  So the $64,000 question is:  "Was Benjamin up to the challenge?"  The Answer: A Resounding YES!

Benjamin brought Nellie into the goat milking stall and she jumped up on her milking stanchion.  First he closed the stanchion around her head, locking her in.  It doesn't hurt her and she doesn't mind.  Then, he had to remove her goat bra.  This contraption that Tricia designed keeps Annie away from her momma's milk so that WE can have it.  The apparatus also ensures that Nellie is dressed modestly around the other farm animals. (Smile)

Unfastening the goat bra

The next task is to clean Nellie up.  Animals like to lie down in the dirt from time to time and although we milk through a filter made with a muslin cloth, we still use a washrag to wash the teat area to ensure that it is free of dirt and hair.  No one likes dirt or hair in their milk.

Scrub a Dub Dub

Nellie sometimes gets a little antsy while she's being milked and stomps her feet.  We find that a little feed in the trough in front of the stanchion is a nice diversion while we milk her, so Benjamin put a scoop of Dairy Ration in the trough.

Breakfast for Nellie

You'll notice that Benjamin has one of Nellie's legs hobbled with a halter leash to keep her from kicking.  It is anchored to a cleat that I have fastened to the side of the stanchion.  Then he places the cloth-wrapped jar under one of her teats and starts milking, one teat at a time.  (While a cow has four teats - a goat has two.)

Got Milk?

Benjamin got the process down quickly.  He's a whole lot better at it than I am.  While I can really milk cows easily, somehow I can't get the hang of milking a goat.  In the photograph, you can see how Nellie's teat fills with milk as you open and close your hand and you simply squeeze it out. 

Fresh Squeezed Goat Milk

It really doesn't take that long at all to milk Nellie, but you still want to be comfortable, so we have a little stool to sit on during the process.  While milking our cows, we have box fans running to cool us off, but with the nice Fall weather, we don't need them right now.

Sitting down on the job

In no time at all Benjamin's jar started filling up with goat milk.  We make kefir with it and I usually have a goat kefir smoothie for breakfast each morning with honey and figs and a dash of cinnamon.  Pretty soon when Benjamin opened his hand, the teat no longer filled with milk, letting him know that he had emptied her.

Almost done

Benjamin is an adept Dairyman.  I was so proud of him and I think he was proud of himself, too.  He was a little hesitant about milking at first, but when he proved to himself that he could do it, his confidence was boosted and he felt good about it.

The Dairyman

There's something to be said about learning how to do something that you've never done before.  Doing the unknown can be intimidating, but when you actually do it and succeed, it bolsters your confidence to try other things.  Attaway to go, Benjamin , My Right Hand Man!

A Bra for Nellie!

The other day we talked about how we're trying to wean Annie.  We don't want her drinking Nellie's milk, so we have Annie cordoned off in a temporary pen made of livestock panels.  Trouble is, Annie has been poking her head through the panels and stealing "our" milk from Nellie.  We're not going to let that happen, so we figured out a way to stop it.  Tricia's going to fabricate a GOAT BRA!

Tricia went out to the pasture and took measurements of Nellie's "bosom."  You can see that she sketched out Nellie's ample dimensions (rear and side view) on the Sports Page to make a pattern.

Beginnings of a pattern for a goat bra

She made a pattern large enough to shield Nellie's teats from her hungry little daughter and cut the pattern out.

Cut out pattern

She then cut out fabric to match the pattern, using 'nude' colored fabric as we thought that might be appropriate.

Coming together

Tricia wanted me to tell you that she's not a seamstress.  She can put a few stitches together, though, to make goat lingerie.

Sewing...

The angled pieces are the sides and the biggest piece on the right is the back of the goat bra.

We figured that Nellie would probably not be wearing strapless dresses to formal events and galas that she attends, so Tricia made her bra have straps.  Here she's sewn them on.

Straps

Now she's turned the goat bra inside out and is fashioning a bottom to the bra to make Nellie inaccessible to Annie.

Here we go!  This is the first prototype of the Goat Bra.  This bra is designed for the modest, practical goat. It does not enhance or show off a goat's feminine curves, nor is it formal.  It does not come in satin or have any lace on it whatsoever.  Red or black are not color options for the Our Maker's Acres Goat Bra.  This bra will never grace the cover of Glamour Goat Magazine, but that's okay with us.

A Goat Bra for Nellie

So it was time for the fashion show.  Nope, there was not a runway for Nellie to strut down, showing off her new bra.  Without fanfare we strapped on her bra and she ran across the pasture modeling her new bra.  We like the look.  This is a practical pet undergarment.  It is not like we knitted a sweater with a matching cap for Nellie.  We sat back with a feeling of accomplishment, happy that we had taken care of an open item.

Nellie's Goat Bra!

Here is another view where Nellie is posing, showing off her new lingerie.  

Our exuberance lasted for, oh, about ten minutes.  When I checked back in our our lingerie model, this is what I found:

Our immodest goat has shed her bra

Just like a rebellious hippie from the 60's, Nellie discarded her bra and trotted around the pasture unhindered and unfettered.  We picked up the goat bra prototype from the ground where Nellie had disrobed and decided that the goat bra needed additional straps.  A full-figured lady needs additional support.  We should have considered this. Back to the drawing table we go...